China Supports UN Action on North Korea While Urging Talks

China said the U.N. should take "necessary measures," but added that sanctions and pressure should spur dialogue and negotiation between the sides toward the goal of a peaceful solution on the Korean Peninsula

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'Enough Is Enough': US Envoy Pleads for Action on N. Korea

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley addressed the Security Council on Monday, saying North Korea's latest nuclear test show that the country is "begging for war." She added that other nations must stand up to the North's regime, saying, "enough is enough." (Published Monday, Sept. 4, 2017)

China supports further United Nations action in response to North Korea's latest nuclear test but also wants to see renewed efforts to begin dialogue involving all sides, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday.

China hopes North Korea will "see the situation clearly and come to the right judgment and choice," Wang said.

He said the U.N. should take "necessary measures," but added that sanctions and pressure should spur dialogue and negotiation between the sides toward the goal of a peaceful solution on the Korean Peninsula.

"We believe that sanctions and pressure are only half of the key to resolving the nuclear issue. The other half is dialogue and negotiation. Only when the two are put together can it unlock the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula," Wang said.

North Korea Claims Success in Its Most Powerful Nuke Test

North Korea claimed "perfect success" in an underground test of what it called a hydrogen bomb — potentially vastly more destructive than an atomic bomb. It was the North's sixth nuclear test since 2006, but the first since President Donald Trump took office in January.

(Published Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017)

China is a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, as well as North Korea's main trading partner and source of food and fuel aid.

Also Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated China's opposition to South Korea's deployment of a U.S. Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense System, also known as THAAD, which is intended to protect against North Korean missile attacks. Beijing says the system's powerful radars will be able to monitor flights and missile launches deep inside northeastern China.

Two of the system's launchers are already operational, and the remaining four were added Thursday amid protests by residents living near the site in South Korea.

South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Co. said its China plant halted operation due to a supply disruption on Tuesday, its second shutdown in China in less than a month.

While China has not discussed military planning for a crisis on the Korean Peninsula with the U.S. or others, its defense ministry reported that the armed forces carried out drills in nearby waters two days after North Korea said it exploded a hydrogen bomb on Sunday.

The ministry said the exercise in the Bohai Gulf was aimed at "boosting the forces expulsion mission capability" and not at any specific nations or targets, according to a statement posted on the ministry's official Sina Weibo microblog account. The ministry said the exercises had been planned well in advance.